MegaUpload, first interview with Kim Dotcom

You all know about the brutal stop of the file-sharing site MegaUpload and and other sites of the group, follow-up by the arrest of the leaders including president Kim Schmitz alias Kim Dotcom in Zealand News.

Today he makes his first televised appearance since his arrest and his release in bond. He affirms of course that he will defend himself and compares his activity to other sharing sites like Google which often gained lawsuits of the same style. No one imagines the FBI abruptly close all Google's sites under pretext that Youtube is used to diffuse illegal videos. Of course, the yankee giant has much more lawyers than any other company in the sector!

~

The fact that MegaUpload and its leaders are guilty or not to incentive piracy and other eccentric counts of indictment is not what shocks me more. The most alarming thing in this case is the brutal stop of twenty Web sites throughout the world by the FBI, i.e. an American organization, without any lawsuit...

~

How is it possible that a site hosted in several countries can be stopped instantaneously? Ho well, the answer is in the centralization of the Internet. As opposed to what we could think, the network is not really worldwide and its American origins are clearly marked on some points. The .com, .net, .org... domain names depend on the USA and they thus have the power to suspend any site, even if it's hosted in another country.

U.S. procedure for international effects

The action against MegaUpload was initiated in the United States, but its effects are well international. By keeping 18 domain names, U.S. authorities impose in a certain way their process, and its immediate consequences, to other states and their users.

«The U.S. authorities have clearly control over all digital extensions that are managed by U.S. providers or located in the United States. We are in the heart of the problematic about the applicable law when it comes to domain name, there is a real conflict of jurisdiction» has also worried the CEO of AFNIC, Loïc Damilaville. (Editor's note: The AFNIC is the French association for .fr domain names) (Source ZDNet)

~

So instead of "appreciate" the judgement and the closure of the MegaUpload websites, French president and other European politicians would have done better to rise against the totalitarian methods of the American world.

In an official statement, Nicolas Sarkozy «salutes the massive operation launched by the federal courts of the United States.». He also calls «French designers to enhance their use of judicial procedures already existing in our law.»

Let us imagine if a country wants to preserve a Web site close to its heart, the USA could decide to stop it, and this even before any trial! Because I point out that Kim Dotcom and his company were not declared guilty yet by a court!

~

Remember also that people who have paid access to the site and those having stored important files in backup copy lost their money or their files there! Because of the decision of a U.S. police branch only who "judged" that if they used a site «with a so bad reputation as MegaUpload, they could only blame themselves!» Sic...

However the American authorities declared a few days later that 10% of the paying subscribers of MegaUpload used it in a 100% legal way... That represents already million people and so we imagine that the number of users partially in legality is very important. Moreover I would be curious to know the number of FBI investigators 100% in legality...

~

In short, to make obey the law is well. To put under arrest people and activities with a legal part, without any judgment, by imposing this decision on all the other countries in the world, is... very American!

And if ever he were discharged? Would we have apologies, a reinstallation of the service and a refunding in consequence from the United States? Don't dream!

This article was posted the Sunday 4 March 2012 at 15:34 in the category Computer news with tags: Internet, Justice, News. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is allowed..